This invention relates to siding products generally, and more particularly relates to synthetic siding corners for use with synthetic siding products having a random length or random appearance wood shake or slate impressions formed thereon.
Wooden shingles and shakes represent a dominant part of a century old architectural style. The style is still considered very attractive and maintains substantial popularity. It is not surprising wooden shakes and shingles siding products are still used in the construction of homes, businesses and other structures. Unfortunately, these wooden products require significant maintenance. The rising cost of maintenance is detrimental to retaining buildings constructed in such a style. Moreover, the cost of wood siding is also rising and has become relatively expensive, as well as quite labor intensive to install. Further, the durability of wooden products, such as those constructed from cedar, lags far behind that of products made of synthetic materials. Therefore, a considerable number of synthetic siding products have been created for the building industry. These products seek to simulate the wooden appearance of, for example, cedar shingles or cedar shake shingles. These simulated wood siding products are typically formed from materials such as polyvinyl chloride or polypropylene.
Once synthetic siding panels are installed onto the exterior sheathing of a structure, it often becomes necessary to place a corner cap over the exposed ends of the siding panels. In the case of synthetic siding simulating horizontal boards, the corner cap is typically a long, vertically extending corner piece with a vertically extending slot or pocket for receiving the exposed ends of the simulated horizontal boards of the synthetic siding. A solution of a tall corner providing a pair of continuous vertically extending slots is aesthetically less desirable for synthetic siding simulating wood shakes, cedar shingles or slates because an impression of mixed architectural styles or, worse, reduced craftsmanship or, still worse yet, artificiality may be undesirably conveyed. Thus, efforts have been made to match the ornamental appearance of the siding panel with the corner cap appearance, so as to avoid an unaesthetic or artificial looking final structure. One example is the simulated shake siding corner described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,015,391 to Epstein, et al. entitled “Simulated Cedar Shake Construction,” the entirety of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein. As previously extensively reviewed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,684,587 of the present inventors, incorporated by reference herein in its entirety, Epstein describes simulated cedar shake siding panels that are attached to the outside walls of a structure and a corner piece that may be used in conjunction with the described siding panels. The shortcomings of the Epstein corner have been previously discussed.
A recurrent and still remaining theme in the synthetic simulated siding field is how to effectively and efficiently simulate a random selection of shake shingles in each course. One significant advance in this effort is represented by U.S. Pat. No. 6,907,702 entitled “Staggered Look Shake Siding” also incorporated herein in its entirety by reference. However, due to the absence of lineal contour uniformity responsible for the improved appearance and impression of such siding, new challenges for corner capping are encountered. One less than desirable solution is to ignore a gap frequently encountered between siding with lineal varying contour and corner cap.
Therefore, there remains a need for a better corner piece that provides the appearance of natural corners on the courses of a siding facade employing simulated cedar impression siding panels and for a corner piece that more effectively integrates a corner piece into a simulated cedar shake shingle facade to eliminate a gap that allows dirt and insects access through the siding system. The present invention represents an effective and efficient solution to the undesirable yet frequently observed significant gap between siding and corner cap.